One of his Democratic colleagues asked Republican Delegate Nick Freitas (pictured) if he was going to be "nice" this session. Freitas' three-and-a-half-minute response last week (which was met with applause) was to the entire House of Delegates: He would be happy to be nice, he said – provided Democrats would stop calling everyone they disagree with on policy racist, or homophobic, or bigoted, or not a Christian:
Freitas: "That has been the repeated narrative coming from certain members of the other side of the aisle. And there's been a lot of times we've sat here politely and just took it. Mr. Speaker, not this time. I'm tired of it [and] my constituents are tired of it …. If you're going to question the faith or the intentions of anybody who happens to disagree with you on policy, then you don't get to lecture us on compassion, tolerance, or an open debate." (Watch video)
Jesse Lee Peterson of the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND) says he's been waiting a long time for someone to push back on the race-baiters.
"It was amazing!" he responds when asked his reaction to Freitas' comeback. "I'm like, it's about time. White Americans have given up their own country due to one word – and that word is racism."
Peterson argues that racism doesn't even exist – and that people and their actions are either right or wrong, good or evil. The problem, he tells AFN, is spiritual at its roots.
"People don't hate one another because of their color. They hate one another because they have no love in their hearts, they have not returned to God and returned to love," says Peterson. "Anyone who has anger does not have love, so they're going to judge. They have to make themselves feel better about being wrong."
But it does betray the emptiness of their worldview, he adds: "If they can't intimidate you with lies and name-calling and threats, they have nothing."
